Return to Western Australia

Sat 25 April Not sorry to leave Timber Creek as it was a bit of a tip, though we were pleasantly surprised that there were no mossies around last night and we were able to eat dinner and sit outside all evening. Highlight of the evening, 2 boys with a lamp and a baseball bat on a cane toad hunt.
We are going over the border today into Western Australia and of course there is a border control of fruit , veg, honey, plants and seeds. We have 2 hours or 200k to eat 3 mandarins and about 1K of grapes, or throw them away. Already jettisoned potatoes onions and salad. We struggle manfully through the fruit, before the checkpoint and when we arrived we had to declare our honey and it was confiscated which seems stupid as we expect we can buy exactly the same brand in W A. A very stringent fine if you try to smuggle stuff $5,000! Anyway we had a very interesting talk with the Quarantine Officer about cane toads. Then it’s over the border (and all of a sudden the time has changed by 1 and a half hours, backwards,) and down the road to Lake Argyle and the East Kimberley. We have found another fantastic place. The road only goes as far as Lake Argyle Resort then 35K back to the highway. The resort is about boating, fishing bird watching and walking and the lake (reservoir) was man made in 1971. They dammed the river Ord. We went for a drive across the dam and then down the other side for a picnic below the dam wall, a lovely place with no-one else there, just us and the birds. On the way back we stopped at the boat ramp and went for swim. The water was warm and gin clear and Peter could feel the little fish nibble ling at the hairs on his legs. There was a sign to say no swimming in the river but nothing to say we couldn’t swim in the lake. Later we found out that there are an estimated 25,000 freshwater crocs in the lake but it’s OK because they are not as aggressive as the saltwater species. We would like to stay here a while but we have no food, the café and restaurant don’t open fully until May and the shop has very limited supplies. We but some fish, Silver Cobbler, caught in the lake and we also begged a potato, a tomato, some lettuce leaves, a cucumber and an onion. Ready Steady Cook! That’s tonight’s meal sorted! Need to get to civilisation tomorrow.